[Noisebridge-discuss] spacebridge? hackers(in)space?

[Ariel Waldman]

I would be so excited to have a "spacebridge" of sorts. I used to work
at NASA and created http://spacehack.org (a directory of ways to
participate in space exploration) after I left last year.

I am new to hardware hacking, so I just got my arduino starter-kit and
was considering eventually doing the "spaceduino" project you describe
with it.

I'm up for meeting up Sunday afternoon/early evening. If we confirm
meeting up, I could try and invite some of my friends who are in the
small spacecraft division at NASA. A lot of them got together this
past weekend to do a NASA Hackathon and they often host "tiny hack"
days in the south bay, so they'd probably be into it.


Ariel Waldman | digital anthropologist

[ http://arielwaldman.com | http://spacehack.org ]


---------------------------------------------------------------
Mikolaj Habryn dichro at rcpt.to
Thu Dec 17 10:44:43 PST 2009
________________________________

Excellent! Is there any chance that we're all going to be around
Noisebridge anytime this weekend to scheme? Late Sunday afternoon
(6pm-ish)? (and do you all have wave accounts? My desperate search for

a use case continues....)

m.

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 11:08 PM, Christie Dudley <longobord at
gmail.com> wrote:
> Yeah!  As I was saying when we last spoke, I think this is a really cool

> idea.  I'm still waiting to hear back from my space people (they say maybe
> by early January.  I must confess that the longer I wait, the more
> discouraged I get, but I'm still hopeful.)  I'm terribly busy right now, but

> I'd definitely be interested in looking at this.
>
> Christie
> ---
> Why I take the road less traveled?  Oh, that's easy.  I'm claustrophobic.

>
>
> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:45 PM, Brian Molnar <brian.molnar at gmail.com>
> wrote:

>>
>> I have been *VERY* interested in doing this for some time now, so if you
>> want some help, I'm definitely down. Plus I'm very willing to contribute
>> financially.

>>
>> - Molnar
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:14 PM, Mikolaj Habryn <dichro at rcpt.to> wrote:

>>>
>>> There's been lots of articles of late about school kids sending
>>> weather balloons with cameras up to 100,000 feet for peanuts and
>>> getting amazing pictures. These projects kinda lack ambition -

>>> although I'll confess to being grudgingly impressed nonetheless.
>>>
>>> By contrast, these guys are my heros -
>>> http://www.members.shaw.ca/sonde/ - they carry a glider up with a

>>> home-built autopilot that navigates back to where they're waiting for
>>> it (sometimes upside-down). Their stories are the reason that I have a
>>> 2.6m r/c glider in my cube at work (that I'm too scared of to actually

>>> fly).
>>>
>>> Also, a friend pointed out on the weekend that http://jpaerospace.com/
>>> have somewhat stolen my thunder, but, dammit, I still think there's

>>> some fun to be had here.
>>>
>>> Things I'm keen to work on:
>>>
>>> Buoyancy control for high-altitude balloons - most of these guys send

>>> balloons up until they burst and then recover payload under a
>>> parachute. It shouldn't be too hard to build something that can hold
>>> altitude by moving gas between envelope and rigid container (a full

>>> day-night cycle might be hard, but you never know - at lower altitudes
>>> you could potentially condense water vapor and electrolyze to
>>> replenish hydrogen supplies). Talking to the blimpduino guys at maker

>>> faire a year or two back, they were also interested in the idea of
>>> having a buoyancy control system at the smaller scale, but didn't
>>> think it could be done in their weight budget. I think they're wrong,

>>> and I even had the parts to prove it at one stage.
>>>
>>> 1kg of batteries has enough energy to accelerate a 10g weight to
>>> orbital velocity.  I had a napkin once that claimed that a reasonably

>>> efficient motor could achieve that by spinning a reasonable length
>>> tether at reasonable g forces, but I think I got the numbers wrong at
>>> the time :P OTOH, yesterday I saw a tech talk by the quick launch guys

>>> (giant hydrogen cannons ftw) where they mentioned trivially
>>> g-hardening consumer electronics to 3200g, so maybe there's still a
>>> way of doing it with a reasonable length of practical tether - not

>>> that I know *what* tether, how it will behave when the outer section
>>> of it is travelling at transonic speeds, drag losses at 100k feet, and
>>> what kind of interesting payload you can fit into 10 grams, but these

>>> are implementation details.
>>>
>>> Um. I had other ideas, but can't think of them right at the moment.
>>> Anyone else have related projects or want to play? I intend to grab

>>> some weather balloons from ebay, a cylinder of hydrogen and maybe some
>>> ardupilots and carefully skirt various FAA regulations in the next
>>> couple of months.

>>>
>>> m.
>>>
>>> PS: and Black Rock City Spaceport - 'coz fuck steampunk.
>>> _______________________________________________

>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss

>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net

>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>
>

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